7.24.2017

A. SMITH GALLERY: Black and White

“I’ve been forty years discovering that the queen of all colors is black.” – Henri Matisse

The call to enter was simple. Black and White. The possibilities of what may be entered are limitless. “All the masters shot in black and white,” as Daido Moriyama has put so simply, “but then again, that is all they had.” Today there are so many other choices, and directions photographers can take, but thankfully many continue to embrace the choice toward black and white imagery.

I never get bored looking at images. I’m drawn to all types, all subjects, and all genres. What makes one image more interesting to me than another is hard to define. Finding something, perhaps the smallest detail, is the extraordinary that waits to be discovered.

And so with this call for entry I was not disappointed by the results. From over 1,000 images submitted, I found that there was more than one exhibition that could be edited from the whole. That is what makes jurying so difficult. There are only fifty seats at the table, but there are at least four or five times as many images that exceed expectations, that tell a story better than another, that make you feel strongly about something you may not have noticed before.

When I first viewed William King’s magical photograph of Coretta Scott King (no relation), I knew it had to receive the top Juror’s Award. It just rose above the others both in content and in skill. I had that same strong feeling when viewing Leslie Jean-Bart, Mark Coggins and Francis Crisafio' three Honorable Mention photographs. The images that followed were chosen individually for one reason or another, but not to say they were easy choices – there were so many that had to be left out for reasons of space. The photographs that weren’t “chosen” this time around – try not to take it personally – all of the work was very good. Continue to send your work out into the world as a big wide net. Let it come back to you from sources you couldn’t plan. You can never be sure who will find it, and contact you next.

– Elizabeth Avedon

black + white

Juror | Elizabeth AvedonExhibition dates | August 4 to September 10, 2017Reception | August 26, 2017 from 4 to 8pm